Israel Struggles to Quell Forest Fire

NYTimes

Israel was still struggling on Friday to control a fire raging in a rain-starved forest in northern Israel that has left at least 41 people dead, caused the evacuation of thousands of residents, destroyed some kibbutz houses and prompted the government to call for urgent international aid in fighting the blaze.

A spokesman for the fire service in the area, Hezi Levy, said the fire, which broke out on Thursday morning, was the biggest and deadliest in Israel’s history.

The scale of the crisis forced Israel, which prides itself on being one of the world’s most nimble and generous countries in disaster relief, into the unusual position of petitioner. Early on Friday, a plane from Greece carrying personnel and equipment and a Bulgarian plane with about 100 firefighters landed at an air force base in the north of the country. [...]

Rabbi Yaakov Ariel: A violent husband should be excommunicated

YNET

On the same day that the Jerusalem District Court convicted self-proclaimed rabbi Elior Chen for a long list of abuse charges, Ramat Gan Chief Rabbi Yaakov Ariel published a ruling asserting that a man who abuses his wife should be barred from participating in a prayer or any other Jewish activity.

The prominent rabbi, who heads Tzohar, a union of Zionist Religious rabbis, also ruled that a violent husband should be excommunicated – a tough and unusual punishment reserved by the Jewish law for those committing grave religious and moral violations. [...]

Rav Sternbuch: Refusing Compromise

Rav Sternbuch: Reconciling Suffering

Rav Sternbuch:Chanuaka - battling Yavan

Israel:Fire disaster: World offers help, Turkey sends planes

YNet

International community offering its help: Israeli authorities are expecting to receive more than 20 firefighting aircraft Thursday night from Britain, France, Romania, Greece, Cyprus, Spain, Croatia, Azerbaijan and Russia to help in the effort to contain the northern blaze that claimed at least 40 lives.

Despite the great diplomatic tensions vis-à-vis Israel, Turkish officials announced that they too will be sending two firefighting airplanes. Egypt also pledged to send a plane to help battle the blaze. Later Thursday, Jordan and Bulgaria said they are willing to send firefighting teams to help contain the fire. Italy also said it would offer assistance. [...]

Operating theater accident sets pregnant woman alight

Haaretz

A woman suffered burns during a cesarean operation when a fire broke out in the operating room at Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer in 2008, a report by a Health Ministry inquiry committee reveals.

Hospital staff had washed the woman with various chemical solutions to sterilize her before the operation and then dried her off. But when she was brought to the operating room, the surgeon asked that the relevant areas of her body be washed down again with an alcohol solution, just to be doubly sure.

The surgeon then cut into her with a diathermic needle. But the instrument, which uses an electric current, emitted a spark, and when the spark touched the alcohol on her body, it burst into flame. [...]

Baclofen: New Version of an Old Drug Could Treat Autism (and Addiction Too)

Time

One night in 2006, Kathy Roberts rushed her autistic daughter, Jenny, to the hospital. Nothing had been able to stop the young woman, then in her mid-20s, from vomiting. Jenny had recently suffered several major seizures and her entire gastrointestinal system was going haywire.

To try to calm Jenny's GI tract, doctors at Massachusetts General Hospital prescribed baclofen, an antispasmodic drug that is also being studied as a potential treatment for alcoholism and other addictions. The drug relieved Jenny's vomiting, but it did something else too — a completely unexpected and welcome side effect. (More on TIME.com: Could Anorexia Be a 'Female' Form of Autism?)

"Within 24 hours, I saw a change," says Roberts. "Right away, I saw that it was globally calming. I've always described a state that she would get into where it seemed like she wasn't comfortable in her own skin, and was trying to crawl out. I saw that calmed down."

Roberts, founder of the Giant Step school for children with autism in Southport, Conn., called Mark Bear, professor of neuroscience at MIT and advisory board member of Giant Step. In 2005, Bear had co-founded a drug company called Seaside Therapeutics to develop treatments for autism and other developmental disorders. Roberts told Bear about baclofen's effect on her daughter, and a new line of research was born. (More on TIME.com: Picky Eating May Be Early Sign of Autism). [...]

Is Israel ‘a rogue state’? You’d better hope so

An expectation-defying speech delivered at a Cambridge University student debate last month.

Background information JPost

JPost  by GABRIEL LATNER 

This is a war of ideals, and the other speakers here tonight are rightfully, idealists. I'm not. I'm a realist. I'm here to win. I have a single goal this evening – to have at least a plurality of you walk out of the "Aye" door. I face a singular challenge – most, if not all, of you have already made up your minds.

This issue is too polarizing for the vast majority of you not to already have a set opinion. I'd be willing to bet that half of you strongly support the motion, and half of you strongly oppose it. I want to win, and we're destined for a tie. I'm tempted to do what my fellow speakers are going to do – simply rehash every bad thing the Israeli government has ever done in an attempt to satisfy those of you who agree with them. And perhaps they'll even guilt one of you rare undecided into voting for the proposition, or more accurately, against Israel. [...]

Self-declared Israeli rabbi convicted of abusing eight children

Haaretz

The Jerusalem District Court on Tuesday convicted a self-declared rabbi for abusing the eight children of the woman with whom he lived.

Last week, four of Rabbi Elior Chen's followers were sentenced to lengthy prison on similar child abuse charges. [,,,]

Conjoined Twins See Through Each Other's Eyes

AOL News

Twins share a unique bond, often claiming to know each other's thoughts and frequently finishing each other's sentences. But one set of sisters has taken twin powers to a whole new level: They can see through each other's eyes.

Meet Tatiana and Krista Hogan of Vernon, British Columbia, Canada -- 4-year-olds conjoined at the head, known as craniopagus twins.

"They are very interconnected. They share a lot of things normal conjoined twins don't. They have the special ability to see what each other's seeing through each other's eyes," Felicia Simms, the girls' mother, said in a television interview with ABC News. [...]

Novominsker Rebbe publicly discusses child molesting at Aguda Conference

The following is a link to a recording of this year's Aguda Convention. Between minutes 31-35 the Novominsker Rebbe publicly announces that it is time to take the issue out from under the rug. While he places the main responsibility on parents  and does not acknowledge any responsibility of the yeshivos or community - accept to praise the Aguda and Torah uMesora for producing behavioral standards for teachers in conjunction with their lawyers and  fighting against the Markey Bill -  it is clearly a small step forward that is long overdue.

	2010_Thur_Night_Session_01 - 01 - Track 1.mp3	9.55 MB

Chinuch: Divine Providence applies only to man

Chinuch (#169): There are some groups that believe that Providence applies to every living creature - both man and animal. There are also those who extend Providence further and say it applies to every entity in the world - living or non-living. In other words they say that the smallest entity only moves as response to G-d’s will and decrees. They go so far as to say that even when a single leaf falls off a tree that G-d decreed that it should fall. That it is impossible that its falling be delayed and advanced by an instant. However such a belief is ridiculous - extremely far from human intelligence. There are also evil groups that assert that there is no such thing as Providence for anything in the world whether for people or the rest of living creatures. This view is the view of heretics and it is evil and bitter. However we Jews believe that Providence applies to living creatures only in general – other than man. In other words, the different species are sustained so that the species themselves don’t become extinct. In contrast we believe that regarding man that there is Providence for each and every person which varies according to his deeds. This teaching we know by tradition passed down by the great sages - as well as many verses that teach these principles.

Child Abuse:October 17 JBAC program - corrected audio links

the links in the previous post stopped working - here are new ones.

I have tested several links.  All the ones I tested did work.

http://boxstr.net/files/6934833_x6mbt/01_Dorron_Katzin_intro.mp3
http://boxstr.net/files/6934834_lpklv/02_Vivian_Skolnick_intro.mp3
http://boxstr.net/files/6934835_ojkyy/03_Elliot_Pasik_intro.mp3
http://boxstr.net/files/6934836_353iv/04_Rabbi_Gedalia_Dov_Schwartz.mp3
http://boxstr.net/files/6934837_ldwqf/05_Mark_Weiss.mp3
http://boxstr.net/files/6934838_gfwcx/06_Pinny_Taub.mp3
http://boxstr.net/files/6934839_j84za/07_Patricia_Sudendorf.mp3
http://boxstr.net/files/6934840_hr2gg/08_Vivian_Skolnick.mp3
http://boxstr.net/files/6934841_ouk4f/09_Rabbi_Mark_Dratch.mp3
http://boxstr.net/files/6934842_d0e16/10_Asher_Lipner.mp3
http://boxstr.net/files/6934843_3jfnw/11_Rabbi_Moshe_Soloveichik.mp3
http://boxstr.net/files/6934844_1ngb5/12_Elliot_Pasik.mp3